Yasuyo Yamasaki

Yasuyo Yamasaki (17 October 1891-29 May 1943) was a Colonel of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. He commanded Japanese land forces during the Battle of the Aleutians, and he was killed at the Battle of Attu in 1943.

Biography
Yasuyo Yamasaki was born in Tsuru, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan on 17 October 1891, the son of a Buddhist priest. He graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1913 and served in the Japanese invasion of Siberia during the Russian Civil War from April 1918 to December 1920. In May 1928, he also took part in an expedition to China, occupying Jinan. In March 1940, Yamasaki was promoted to colonel, and he led a 2,650-strong invasion force during the invasion of the Aleutian Islands in April 1943. In the Battle of Attu, Yamasaki ordered his men to pull back from the beachheads to hold strong defensive positions, tactics later replicated by the Japanese at the Battle of Iwo Jima and the Battle of Okinawa. On 29 May 1943, the 51-year-old Yamasaki personally led a banzai charge against US Army troops on Engineer Hill during the Battle of Attu, sword in hand; he was killed alongside all but 29 of his men.